Texas murder suspect surrenders after escape

TERRY WALLACE
Associated PressPublished: December 5, 2012 1:16AM

DALLAS (AP) -- A capital murder suspect stole a deputy's gun, fled a Dallas hospital and held police at bay for nearly two hours Tuesday night before surrendering peacefully and returning to the hospital, officials said.

Franklin B. Davis, 30, of Carrollton, surrendered shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday and was returned to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital from which he'd escaped about 8:30 p.m. while receiving treatment, Dallas County sheriff's spokeswoman Carmen Castro said.

Castro said she did not know what kind of treatment Davis was receiving.

Dallas police tactical squad officers surrounded the 30-year-old Carrollton man about 9 p.m. after he sought refuge in a van about a mile from the hospital, Castro said. Negotiations finally resolved the standoff peacefully, she said.

Castro said the deputy was not injured in the incident at the hospital, but she said she had no other details.

Davis is awaiting trial in the death of Shania Gray, a 16-year-old sophomore at Hebron High School in Carrollton. Her body was found Sept. 8 along a fork of the Trinity River. She had been shot and strangled.

Davis already had been charged with four counts of sexually assaulting Gray when he allegedly took Gray from her school. Police have said Davis confessed to killing the girl. Police say he did so to prevent Gray from testifying against him in a sexual assault case.

Family and friends had said that when she was killed Gray's family was in the process of moving from one Dallas suburb to another so her father could be closer to work. Neighbors in Mesquite, the eastern suburb where the family lived for years, described Gray as friendly and caring.

According to relatives and an affidavit released by Carrollton police, Davis posed as a teenage boy on the Facebook social media page and bought a new cellphone to contact Gray and get information about the sexual assault case.

The two exchanged text messages, though Carrollton police spokesman Jon Stovall said he didn't know how many.

Davis told Carrollton police Gray was surprised to see him when he pulled up to her outside her school but got into his car because he wanted to discuss the case. He told police and several television stations that he drove her to an area near the Trinity River and shot her twice. He then stepped on her neck until she stopped breathing, the affidavit said. Her body was found two days later.